Eagles 32 - Falcons 6
Q. (On evaluation of game).
MATT RYAN: Yeah. I mean obviously disappointed with the result and how it checked out. I think there are some positives. I've played a long time and know it's never as good, it's never as bad. And so, I think with a young football team I think there are a lot of opportunities for us to learn from today, and it's going to be really important for us to get back to work and make sure to correct some of the things that didn't go our way today. It's disappointing. You come out and you expect yourself to play well and to win, and just had some things that kind of got off schedule and had some self-inflicted wounds, and when you do that it puts you in a tough spot to overcome.
Q. Talk about those self-inflicted wounds. Is it the guys getting the live reps they need?
MATT RYAN: I think it's both. You certainly have to practice well, which I think we've done doing. I think our young guys played quite a bit throughout the season and every snap they take is going to be good for them as they move forward. But, across the board I think there's always a good jump from week one to week two, and even though it was a tough result today, I think there are some positives. I thought we started fine, came out and did some good things early, and gotta be better when we get down in the red zone. And you can't have penalties and things like that that kind of put us off schedule down there.
Q. (On evolution of eagles defense).
MATT RYAN: I thought they came in, they played a lot of zone coverage and tried to keep everything in front and trust their four-man rush to get home. And obviously their defensive line played well tonight. So I don't think it was anything that we were unprepared for coming in. I think it was a lot of zone coverage, which we expected, and we knew we had to play well up front and stay on schedule and get into drives and try and wear them down. And we did a good job of that early, but we were not able to sustain that as we moved forward in the game.
Q. (On any signs during the week of practice that led to prediction of this outcome).
MATT RYAN: I think that's part of being a head coach is taking responsibility for those things. And I appreciate Arthur saying that. I think from the same point as players, we've gotta do our part, too, and put in the work and make sure that we're getting ourselves ready to go. So as disappointing as it is today, I think that your mindset constantly has to be on what's in front of you. So collectively we've all gotta be better in terms of our preparation next week and we gotta make sure we stay on schedule and are efficient. I thought when we were, we moved the ball really effectively. We just need to be consistently efficient throughout the game.
Q. And on that last sack did you get nicked up at all?
MATT RYAN: Nah. I'm good.
Q. How did Kyle play in his first game today?
MATT RYAN: Yeah. I thought he did some good things for the first time. We were kind of choppy in the passing game. So I think that makes it difficult on guys. But really good catch on his seam route. Showed that he can catch the ball through contact, which is what you want. I think he's only going to continue to get better for us, and I think it's good always as young players to have that first one under your belt, but I thought he did a good job for us.
Q. (On choppiness of the passing game being a result of this being the first game playing together).
MATT RYAN: I don't think so. I think it comes down to when you're in known passing situations and you're playing against a really good defensive front four and they can tee off and makes it difficult to stay in a rhythm. We were coming into it we had to be efficient first and second down. We had to stay in front of the chains and kind of hit in our spots and stay out of a lot of known passing situations.
Q. And I know improving the red zone was a big thing this year. Was a flashback of last year? Were some different things going on?
MATT RYAN: You know what, sometimes that's how the game shakes out. You expect yourself to be down there quite a bit. Small sample size today. I think we gotta get down there more than we were, give ourselves more opportunities. But you're right. When we get our chances, we gotta take a look at the film and clean up some of the things that we didn't do well down there. I think when you push yourself back and you have opportunities and you kind of work your way back that certainly doesn't happen.
Q. (On pace of first two drives, was it the self-inflicted wounds throughout the game)?
MATT RYAN: Yeah. I think so. I think some of those things, penalties moving you back, not allowing you to get that first first down. A lot of things we talk about get the first first down, get into our tempo and keep moving and try to wear down the defensive front line. You have to be really good in that first set of downs to be able to get into it. And early we were, but later in the game we were not.
Q. In the first half you all were running the ball successfully. Do you feel like there were some times that there were some shot plays that you took and different times you all didn't take?
MATT RYAN: No. I thought we did a nice job early of giving ourselves opportunities in the red area. That's what you want. I thought Art did a nice job of getting us going, moving the ball. As the game wore on, how it shook out we didn't really have that chance. So you don't know that. But I thought he did a fine job early in the game.
Q. Matt, Jalen was noticeably disappointed. Obviously he made his own mistakes. Is there some conversation you had with him?
MATT RYAN: For sure. You tell him, we've all been there. I remember my second game in the league we went down to Tampa. And in the first half I was like three of 22. Something like that. It might have been uglier than, that I'm not really sure. It happens. And it's hard when you put yourself out there and you're going against good guys on the interior. There's really good opportunity for him to learn from this game where he's at in terms of advertise technique. And that's what I tell him. We've all been in that spot. Keep pushing forward. Concentrate on technique and what you're doing in practice and focus on constant improvement.
Q. Were you impressed by the way the run game started at the beginning of the game?
MATT RYAN: Yeah. I think there are some positives to take away from that. I thought our backs ran hard. I really do. I thought Mike and C. P. ran hard. We just needed to do a better job later in the game of getting into -- getting into some drives, getting a couple first downs, getting rolling, because I think early in the game we did that and you saw them starting to finish rounds and rounds coming out the back end for big gains.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports